Day 3/4: Water, pictures, blue eyes, traffic & more

The water over here is scaldingly hot. Ironically enough, the tap that’s marked ‘hot’ dribbles in really cold water when I take my bath late at night. Dad tells me that’s because nobody bothers to heat the water in the overhead tank, and by night, it cools down a bit :-).

For the commenter who asked for pictures of my stay, alas I didn’t bring my cam cable. I’ve taken dozens of pics, but can upload nothing until I reach home. A grevious error that I regret, if not for the perky what-do-you-imagine-them-to-be. I’d also stopped writing Anaka’s story, and had begun a prequel… perhaps I’ll post what I’ve written one of these days. 🙂

Something wacky about yesterday: Dad’s friend, Savad uncle, has an optical shop, and he had a few test pieces of contacts lying around. Guess what? I picked blue. Blue eyes look really cool on me, if I say so myself. 😀

What can I say about the rest of these two days? I’ve settled into a routine which goes something like this: wake up nine-ish, drink chocolate milk, plug into the computer while I munch on something or the other, and spend time on it until ten or eleven. Mostly I just talk to my friends and get my regular whiff of the net, and then it’s time to venture out a bit. Yesterday I went for a haircut… it’s 10Dhs (~120 Rupees) out here, but the guy spent a lot of time on my hair poking and shaping it around. After that, lunch, and then a thorough sleeping session till around five, five-thirty. Eat again, and go out with mom and dad, to places with funny names like “Lulu” and corny ones like “City Center”, and amazing out-of-the-world shops and very obliging female shopkeepers ;-). Let’s just say I have a blast. Back to having a huge dinner, and then by around eleven, twelve, I’ve hit the sack.

Dubai follows the American lane-system of traffic regulation. It’s pretty amazing to watch brash Malayalees who honk and yell at everything in sight back home meekly put on indicators to switch lanes. Many are amazingly aggressive drivers, and handle the system like they were born into it. The entire length of the city is around 60kms (it’s small :-D), but to travel from one end to the other at peak hours takes around one to two hours, it’s that congested. The entire road system is pretty amazing though, mile long tunnels, and sweet traffic lights that work by activators on the road and all, but it makes no sense to me… cars seem to go this way and that following an entirely different set of rules. I’m pretty sure though that anybody who’s driven here all er life would shudder in horror at having to drive back home, but it’s debateable as to which system is better. An ad-hoc system works for some people 🙂

Later. Lots more isolated islands of thoughts to divulge, but I prefer a proper beginning and end. Next time perhaps 🙂